The effect of wheel loading on a railway bridge

Australia’s maturing locomotives and railways concerns with faster and heavier loads will have negative effects to the railway infrastructure. This will accelerate the deterioration of the railway system and increase the chance of cracking from the sleepers and/or damage to the rail and fastening system failure. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of wheel loading on the interaction between sleepers and railhead in the rail component system for Minnamurra Bridge in Kiama NSW. A finite element model was analysed for half of the existing bridge to simplify the model and analysis. The bridge was then analysed to determine the stress distribution and vertical displacement across the sleepers and railhead. The results showed a maximum stress of 320 MPa at the point of the wheel rail contact at each load location of the train and carriages. The maximum vertical displacement across the railway bridge was 3 mm. The critical component of the railway bridge was determined to be the rail of the bridge as it experiences high levels of stress. The stress on the rail is close to the yielding limit of the rail material